Season 6, Episode 9: The Craterite Invasion

"The Craterite Invasion"
Episode 9
Air Date: April 3rd, 1998

I don't know about what it is about these early In Space episodes, but they are kind of dull, boring and underwhelming.  Don't get me wrong, no run of episodes will EVER be as bad the first half of Turbo, but the episodes so far have been lighter on story I remember them being.  We got bits and pieces of Andros' search for his sister as well as Zordon but I'm just ready for those story arcs to be put at the center of the episodes already.  I guess I should just be patient and just wait as I know this season is about to get incredibly good but just call me impatient ok.  "The Craterite Invasion" just feels like an excuse to run through as much footage of the rangers fighting the Sentai foot soldiers of Megaranger.  And don't get me wrong, the action isn't bad and is actually pretty exciting...it's just action for the sake of action on this show is never good when the story isn't the best and of course, the story has to shove in another child actor down our throats!

I'm sorry but I don't care for Patrick and his actor is just awful.  A kid who tells tall tales ending being the center of a message of "crying wolf" has been done before and I really don't care for it here.  Also, why is it that Patrick is the only one who can see the Craterites real forms when they are disguised as humans???  Did they just reveal themselves to him because they wanted to capture him??? It's never explained and makes no sense from a story point of view. EHHHH!!! Any, because of him lying all the time, no one believes him, especially his friends when he tells them about the Craterites. I love his performance as he sits down and cries....lol.  Hey, I know he's a kid but come on, this kind of acting is forced and unbelievable.  Anyway, as the rangers are tracking down the Craterites, they discover that a couple of construction workers are in fact Craterites when a tied up one is discovered by Ashley.

What follows is a sequence after sequence of the rangers fighting Sentai foot soldiers and once again, the action is fine and even entertaining but it's just dull in the context of the story.  Also, half the team just disappears when Cassie and Andros help Patrick get to his mom.  Anyway, we get a cool forest battle that ultimately leads to the Craterite leader revealing himself and he's pretty powerful; tossing Cassie and Andros around until the others arrive.  The Craterite soon literally come together to form one giant Craterite.  The rangers call on their Astro Megazord and fight the monster until they discover his weakness is the leader's head on the monster.  They use the Astro Megazord Blaster to blast the head; destroying it.  Overall, ehhhhh, it was alright!!! Nothing special.  An pretty average episode from the mediocre point of view from an annoying child followed by a series of gratuitous action.  Nothing more to see here!

Final Morph: C+